ICYMI: So long, 'Lee District'; welcome aboard, 'Franconia District'
By Brian Trompeter of the Sun Gazette Newspapers
https://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/so-long-lee-district-welcome-aboard-franconia-district/article_c55c0a9e-fc54-11ec-8d56-9b26b96a9062.html
Supervisors unanimously approved Lusk’s motion to have County Executive Bryan Hill formally begin the process to change the district’s name from Lee to Franconia and report back to the board on any administrative changes necessary and possible financial impacts, plus a timeline for the renaming’s adoption.
Lusk attended three town-hall meetings that drew hundreds of residents and discussed the district’s history and etymology, what it meant to the public and possible alternative names. Each meeting kicked off with a presentation by a Virginia Room historian from Fairfax Library.
“It’s a name that makes sense, it’s a name that our community has embraced and it’s a name that memorializes a place and not a person,”
said Lusk (D-Franconia)
Fairfax Supervisors OK Economic-incentive fund
By Brian Trompeter of the Sun Gazette Newspapers
https://sungazette.news/fairfax-supervisors-ok-economic-incentive-fund/
Fairfax County supervisors on June 28 appropriated $1 million to establish the Fairfax Founders Fund, a grant and technical-assistance program that will bolster promising startup companies in the county that are focused on emerging technological industries.
The moneys, which will come from the county’s Economic Opportunity Reserve Fund, will address under-capitalization of innovative businesses in the early stages of development and link those companies with technical assistance and other area partnerships.
Grant recipients will be eligible for up to $50,000 in funding, but must provide a 50-percent match in the form of capital or sweat equity. The county expects to roll out the program this fall.
The grant program also will foster economic development and job growth, and promote the county’s economic advantages, boosters said. The program also will “marketed broadly so as to ensure its availability to a diverse population of founders,” they said.
“Female and minority businesses have historically had less access to capital and diverse founders have traditionally been underrepresented in equity funding,” supervisors said in a July 2021 board matter.
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